Friday, June 16, 2006

Life of Pi

At an academic conference this week, I finished Pi except for the edging. Several people came up to me, nodded at my knitting, and said, "THAT is what I forgot to bring to the meeting...."

My panel was about the history of race and disability. Since I neither threw up nor passed out, I would say my presentation went well. The other speakers on the panel gave fascinating papers. Although they were all quite different, the papers fit together really well and the conversation with the audience afterwards was fabulous.

But now I am home and all is falling apart.

The dishes piled up in the sink while I finished writing my paper, tried to finish the last chapter of the book, and started cooking all the beautiful produce in our CSA box. David worked cleaning the kitchen for almost twenty minutes last night and I did the same this morning. Yikes. The scariest thing is that the refrigerator is calling to us to cook all those time-consuming-to-clean-and-trim greens and beans, etc. And after they are cooked and eaten, we'll need to wash those dishes. And after everything is clean, we'll pull out yet more produce and cook that.... All while David and I both have not only a lot of non-household work to do but a child we love raising. And knitting to do.

And KNITTING is where the biggest problem is, rather than being my source of sanity. I've tried to start the lace edging of Pi about six times and keep giving up and frogging it. Am I going to have to bail on the lace edging and go with the plain garter stitch border? Am I going to search through Barbara Walker to find a pattern I can do? Knitting into double yarn overs is not easy on my slippery needles nor on my grippy-but-not-pointy bamboo needles. And apparently, I cannot count.

Does anyone have any advice, either about HOW to do what EZ calls for or WHAT to do if I don't do what EZ calls for?

At least David understands. He just had to frog about 4 inches of his sweater....

Hi! I've only just discovered your blog, and in somewhat of another coincidence... I met Norman Kennedy two Summers ago. He hasn't left the folk field completely. He occasionally performs folk songs (Scottish, of course) at The Champlain Valley Folk Music Festival in Vermont. And he's not so shy about speaking of his spinning and weaving now. He's performing there again this August.I wish your father the best of luck with his health. And I look forward to reading more of your blogging. Thanks for sharing!

just got to your blog through your posts on Knitter's review. Your shawl is gorgeous. There is a Yahoo listserv called "classic knitting" where you should find other Pi knitters who can help you out.Good luck!